NewSong is a rehabilitation centre for approximately 60 little girls who have been rescued from various brothels throughout Cambodia. The compound is a ‘safe house’ in a secluded and undisclosed location with great attention being paid to the security of the kids.
The kids undergo an intensive trauma-counselling program with physical and psychological rehabilitation. This is followed by reintegration with their family (if they have a family and the security of the child can be assured), or placement within a carefully chosen foster home or transitional program.
As well as part of the rehabilitation process, NewSong teaches the girls to be children again. They have toys, games and school. For many of them it will be the first time experiencing these things. While at NewSong they are taught to trust their adult caregivers who are ethnic Khmer or Vietnamese, like them. Trust is no small thing, as they have absolutely no concept of trusting any adults. These children have experienced the very worst the world’s adults have to offer. Our hope is that through the long process of rehabilitation, love, acceptance, nurture, tenderness and compassion they will also encounter Christ.
The Children
The children of the Cambodian brothels have no concept of the security or self worth that we, in the West, take to be normal. They are traumatised, physically injured, disoriented and sadly, many feel totally dependant on and have become ‘bonded’ with the pimps that so abuse them. Some have been sold across the border from Vietnam and so are considered stateless. Such children have no concept of compassion, trust, belonging or identity.
Girls sold as slaves into the brothels are expected to service 8-10 adult males per night and 50 – 60 over a weekend. Failure to meet such quotas can result in beating or electrocution. To enhance performance many girls are drugged on methamphetamines – leading to their addiction. Girls, old enough to get pregnant, are subjected to frequent ‘back alley’ abortions. The number of assaults endured by these girls frequently is counted in the thousands!
The psychological issues for all these girls are massive. The staff must cope with all the issues the girls bring – and they are many. The road to anything resembling a normal life for these kids is a long and torturous one. The staff need wisdom, patience, compassion, calmness and hope as they help the girls process all the depravity and hurt that has been inflicted upon them.
Ongoing health assessments paint a picture of the physical condition of the girls. One sampling of 14 girls indicated that nine had severe dental problems, and three were in need of glasses just to see, let alone read – this is the result of malnutrition. HIV and Syphilis were, of course, issues. One of the girls had even been shot in the right side of the head, with the bullet having been previously retrieved from her skull.
It is for such as these that we work, and for whom Christ died.
“He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him.” Psalm 40:3 (NIV)
Testimony
When we first conceived of a safe and secret rehabilitation centre, where girls rescued from sex slavery in the brothels of Cambodia, could go we had high hopes. The risks were huge, the burden heavy and the stakes for the lives involved didn’t get any higher. There was absolutely no guarantee that we would see any substantial change in the well being of the kids we wanted to help. Yet we were driven by the dream of rebuilding lives that had been consigned to a life of almost unimaginable torture.
We have seen our hopes and dreams blessed with success. Many examples of new life come from NewSong. Older girls have reintegrated back into society starting small businesses and being involved in their local churches. Younger girls, with great bravery, have travelled overseas to face their torturers in foreign courts resulting in profound testimony and leading to conviction. Many of the girls at NewSong, at their own request, are part of ministry teams that go back to the brothels where they were victimised to assist and teach younger children who live in the shadow of being sold.
Sannaya she is one of the older ones and, like the others, is a precious example of our hopes, dreams and answered prayers. Here is her story from the NewSong staff:
Sannaya is one of the quietest, sweetest girls that live at the NewSong Centre. She came to live here in August of 2006. She came to us from another centre, timid, scared and so sad because her best friend, whom she had known for years, was not transferred with her. She came filled with overwhelming (and unwarranted) shame for what had happened to her. But as the days and weeks went by we saw a lovely transformation, the true Sannaya blossomed and grew in the unconditional love of Jesus, as it was lived out for her by the staff.
She never knew her mother. Her father had many wives who had many children. She was raised in many households in Cambodia and Thailand. When she was 14 her grandmother in Thailand allowed her to travel to Cambodia with a “guide”. Once over the border they stopped at a “hotel” in Poipet (a town known for being wild and dangerous) that was crowded with “drunk, and messy people” that scared her. The guide told her he would take her to a safe place, but instead took her to a guesthouse and raped her over and over again. He then would take her back and forth over the Thai/Cambodian border and sell her to other men who savagely raped her. During one trip she saw her grandmother and asked her for help, but was refused. When an opportunity for escape presented itself she ran to the Thai police and told them what was happening to her. The police gathered her and a group of girls caught in the same situation and brought them to Cambodia and Sannaya was taken to NewSong.
She had never heard about Jesus before coming to NewSong. But here she learned she wasn’t a “Dirty Girl” and what happened to her was not her fault. She learned that God values children, and He wants them protected and cared for. She learned she could have hope, a future and a good life. She learned she was smart, teachable and more than anything else God himself thought she was “to die for”.
Recently, she was interviewed for a position with World Relief to work in their Anti-Trafficking Program. It’s hard to imagine such a large organisation would even consider one of the traumatised NewSong girls as possible future staff. And not just an ordinary staff member, rather to actually be an educator to her society about the very trafficking that had so victimised her. It was a long process consisting of tests and an interview. The Director of the program said she was very quiet offering only one word answers. This would be expected from a girl that had been through what Sannaya had survived. He thought that she was not going to make the cut. Then he asked her two last questions. “We’re a Christian organisation. What do you think about Jesus?” The silent Sannaya evaporated! “Oh I know very much about Jesus and His love for me. Before I came to NewSong, I never hear anything about Him. But I learned He loves me and died for me. He has a plan for my life, He loves me and He is in my heart!” Then he asked her a very sensitive question. “If you do this work, would you be able to tell people your story, all that happened to you?” “Oh yes, I can. I want to tell everyone what happened to me, so no little girl will ever have to have the pain and hurt I had.”
It’s a brave courageous campaign she is on. In Cambodian culture there is a huge stigma against her because of what happened to her. To many people in Cambodia she is nothing but garbage, a dirty girl, good for nothing. But she is going forth in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to educate parents, grandparents and children about the “trickery” that Satan uses to steal the innocence and health of young children.